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Latino businesses in Painesville flourish, but marketing and branding has yet to promote area as a cultural district [The News-Herald, Willoughby, Ohio](News-Herald (Willoughby, OH) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 02--The Mexican residents of Painesville have created a travel destination by accident. Having originally moved here to work in the nation's nursery capital -- thanks to the fertile ridge left by the receding lake -- the Mexican workmen soon meant the arrival of Mexican families and eventually the search for the comforts of home began. Around 20,000 residents of Latino descent live, work and spend money in the area. Grocery stores popped up, stocked with glass bottles of sodas rarely found in this country, hard-to-come-by vegetables perfect for making salsa verde and pastries made in the tradition of their home. Restaurants also opened, serving burritos and enchiladas needed to meet the standards of those used to the real thing. "Without a Mexican grocery store we couldn't make our foods," said Lorenzo Flores, manager at La Mexicana, a grocer that carries the meats, pastries and even vegetables, with which Mexican families are used to cooking. The store makes its own corn tortillas, a unique benefit for non-Hispanic residents in the area looking to make an authentic Mexican meal -- although it wouldn't be recommended to put that meal up against El Senor's Tacos inside La Mexicana. After being written up in area magazines and lauded on Yelp, it's popularity has spread as the spot to grab a bite from our neighbors to the south. "It took a while but now this is kind of famous, this little restaurant," he said. The grocery, he said, is mostly patronized by Latino individuals whereas the restaurant is a 50/50 split between people of Mexican descent and those who are not. So how to turn the individual businesses into an intimate area that feels like Mexico to form a destination becomes the question. For pizza and pasta, Cleveland-area residents know Little Italy is the obvious destination. And Frank Sterle's Slovenian Country House isn't a secret when the hankering is for schnitzel and pierogi. The area around St. Clair and Superior avenues jutting west of East 55th Street is becoming well known as its self-branded Asiatown, with Pho restaurants, Chinese fare and Asian grocers. But yet to be branded, marketed or talked about is a potential Little Mexico in Painesville. "When I go to Little Italy: the houses on top of each other and there are Italian flags..." Flores said of the feeling of being in Italy when you are in the Murray Hill area of Cleveland. "But there's not such an area here. It might be because there's a mix: black people, white people, Spanish-speaking people." He said he has attempted to make the building La Mexicana is in feel more like Mexico with a terracotta tile roof, but the zoning in that area does not allow for it. Still, he said the city is very, very supportive. Cathy Bieterman is the economic development director for Painesville with an appreciation that these businesses are an asset to the city, leaders of which have been trying to make a financial and reputation comeback for decades. "The Hispanic-based restaurants in the city right now have very unique items that are almost like a cultural trend right now in the community and everybody is shopping these markets," she said. "I see it as almost a Little Italy kind of thing. You have these businesses interwoven into the fabric of the community and something we can continue to grow and enhance the authenticity elsewhere." She said the stores have been an attraction to people from relatively far away from the city. "We have (development organizations and associations) in the downtown and we have the historical groups and that's sort of a voice for those groups. We can work with them on putting up plaques and signage," she said. "If there's some sort of movement we would love that because that would give us an opportunity to work hand-in-hand with those businesses." But Flores said there might be a worry among businesses that a healthy competition between these enterprises might prevent an association like that from forming. A relative of Flores', Maria De Los Angeles Flores, owns an upscale, Aveda salon with Maria Ambris. "Latin people have really thick, black hair so sometimes it's hard to deal with," Maria Flores said, specifically mentioning blonde highlights that many Hispanic women want to have but are hard to achieve. "We have the formula to get it to that point so even if we do someone from Cleveland and someone sees the highlights they come all the way from there." She said she has been finding it hard to break into the market, however, and does think there is a need for a stronger push to promote a "Little Mexico." She said her clientele is about 30 percent or 40 percent non-Hispanic, "and they like it too," Maria Flores said. She said people love the music that's played and the feel of the salon. Neighbors who once questioned their salon, assuming they wouldn't take care of or update the old house they purchased for the business, have since congratulated them on what a positive presence they are in the neighborhood. "We want everyone to know we're here," Flores said. ___ (c)2014 The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio) Visit The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio) at www.news-herald.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |